A Cable Card (CC) is a plug-in card that allows consumers to view and record digital cable televisions channels on digital video recorders, personal computers, and televisions without the use of other equipment such as a set top box (STB) provided by a cable television company. The card, which is typically provided by a subscriber's local cable company is typically a PCMCIA card.
CCs may be used to access both standard definition and high definition channels. The card acts like a unique “key” to unlock the channels and services to which the cable customer has subscribed.
In the United States, there are two kinds of physical CCs: single stream CCs (S-CARD), which are able to decode a single channel at a time; and multi-stream CCs (M-CARD), which can decode up to six channels simultaneously. CCs are covered in the United States by standards including SCTE 28, SCTE 41, CEA-679, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.